Characters-Mother Willow, Mother Willow's Babies, The Old Leaves, Jack Frost, Mr. Wind, Butterflies and Birds, Sunbeam Fairies.

Mother Willow stands in the center of the circle surrounded by the Old Leaves, who are protecting the babies. She sings to the first part of tune of "Annie Laurie."

"Little leaves, pray, tell me,
Oh, tell me leaves, I say!

How are the babies growing,

Growing day by day?"

Out here upon the meadow
We'll have a frolic gay."

The Old Leaves sing, and at the "goodbye" wave their hands to Mother Willow, then fall, and Mr. Wind blows them to another room, where a fairy is supposed to turn them into butterflies and birds.

Again a dreamy piece is played while winter lasts; then, when it is over, the Sunbeam Fairies come to tell that spring is here. They dance round the sleeping group, singing to the tune of "Wake, Says the Sunshine," from C. B. Hubbard's "Merry Songs and Games:"

We are the sunbeams, so merry and gay;
We are the sunbeams coming this way;
We are the fairies saying to-day,
Wake, babies, dear; it is time to be gay,
For you have been sleeping
The whole winter long.
Hark! don't you hear
Our fairy song?

Tra la la la la la, etc.

"Jack Frost now is coming;

I hear his footsteps light
So tuck up the babies tightly

And close each little eye."

The Old Leaves settle the babies carefully; then all go to sleep while some dreamy piece of music is played. (We use a selection from "Martha," through which runs the air of "The Last Rose of Summer," and find it very appropriate.) After this Mr. Wind rushes in, waving his arms and beckoning to the leaves. He sings:

"Little leaves come to me;

Come play with me to-day;

"Merry Songs and Games."

"Yes, yes, we hear the singing

Of fairies and birdies small,

And here, on the bough, we are swinging;
We have come at your fairy call.
Here we'll dance in the beautiful sunlight
To thank the Great Father above
For keeping us safe through the winter;
Oh, He is so full of love!"

Now all the butterflies and birds come dancing with the sunbeams round the tree while the pussies wave to and fro to a piece of bright, sparkling music. (For this we also use a selection from "Martha.")

Expt. 4. Lay a block of inch thick board in the bottom of a fruit jar and pour in half an inch of water.

On this block "island" drop a pinch of turnip or radish seed and put on the cover tight. Set in a warm place where it will not be shaken, for the children to observe the sprouting and growth of the roots as they bend over the edge of the block.

7th. Soon she became drowsy from the cold and went to sleep. The wintry winds howled above her and she was frozen quite stiff, but so well had her wise mother prepared her for all these trials, that she lay unharmed under the protecting leaves and

snow.

8th. One day she awoke feeling uncomfortably warm, and rather cramped.

As she began-like other children-to stretch and turn, to her surprise, the black covering which had shielded her so long began to rip and actually breaks open just where her foot (or root) was, leaving it bare.

9th. She could only lie still and think. Not so the little root, which delighted with its freedom, began at once to feel about in the darkness to find which way to grow. Little did it guess that the loving care of the great God had arranged for the guidance of even a root, and that unseen and unfelt force would lead it in the right way.

roth. It had started upwards, but as it grew longer it began to droop, as if weary and tired, just as you would if you held out your arm for a few moments.

If words were birds

And swiftly flew

From tips of lips

Owned, dear, by you, Would they, to-day, Be hawks and crows

Something seemed to be pulling, pulling it down, and while it knew nothing of Mr. Gravitation and his great strength, it gradually yielded and drooped down toward the

earth.

IIth. At this time it was a soft, delicate little root, with much sap in it, and very thin walls to the little cells or chambers which held the sap.

At last its tip had drooped so far as to touch the earth, and it began to push its way among the sharp sand grains.

What danger of tearing open its delicate cells! (Show those of an orange and add the thought of the root cells being much smaller.)

12th. But again all had been arranged. For as the root pushed between the sand grains the outside thickened and stuck tight to them on either side, while the delicate tip grew on between. It behaved much like a drop of water as it slid and crept down into the tiny cracks of the earth, but everywhere its walls stuck on the sides and thin as its tip grew on, the root thickened and crowded the earth away.

13th. From the sides now sprouted little branches, which made off into the cracks on either hand, and root and branches became clothed with a fuzz of white root hairs, which seemed to fill all the tiny space the root left. What Miss Morning Glory was doing all this time, and how the root helped her, I must tell you next month. EDWARD G. HowE.

Or blue, and true, and sweet-
Who knows?

*Sung to the tune of "Oh, Say, Busy Bee!"

Let's play to-day

We choose the best; Birds blue and true With dove-like breast. 'Tis queer, my dear, We never knew

That words like birds

Had wings and flew.

In the whole of Nature nothing develops without activity. In the numeral world there is the constant action of cohesion, drawing together the atoms of mineral deposit until they form crystals, the flowing sap builds up the plant, the circulation of the blood renews the animal system.

Man is also amenable to this universal law. To be strong he must be active. Nature makes use of every necessity and instinct. That the kitten may have the strength to spring on its prey in later life, it instinctively jumps and capers while young. That the child may have strength for exertions it instinctively exercises itself in play.

"The child is father of the man," and in his play Froebel traces a reflection of the progressive life of mankind. For example, in the child's love for wrestling, running and all open air sports, he sees the first stage of human society when all men were hunters, warriors and athletes.

In the delight a child finds in grubbing in the earth he traces the instinct which led to agriculture and transformed the nomadic race into husbandmen so through the different stages until the human being rises from the life of the untutored savage to the civilization of to-day.

The deeper we go into the history of the development of mankind the subtler we will find the connections between apparently the most trivial things and the facts of human life which we cannot dispute.

The songs and games and stories which delighted you in your own childhood and with which you have since charmed away many hours for restless little ones are not meaningless.

Mother Goose, Robinson Crusoe, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and the rest of the long list of childhood's classics, must have some depth of meaning and significance

else why would they appear in the folklore of all peoples?

America is still too young to be rich in any folk-lore save its Indian traditions. We draw our household literature from the precious stores of our ancestors. Let us analyze the quaint old story of the "Sleeping Beauty." Every child knows the story of the royal maiden who was wounded and fell into a long, long sleep from which she was awakened by the gay young prince; and the general happiness and rejoicing which followed the event.

In Germany it is Brunhilda who is wounded and sleeps for a long time until Siegfried comes to awaken her with a kiss.

When we find that Brunhilda symbolizes the earth which lies in its long sleep during the winter until awakened by the ardent kisses of Siegfried, the sun, which renews activity, life and gladness; the childish tale begins to assume significance in our sight.

In the Norse folk-lore we find Balder (sunlight), and his bride, (the maid of the spring) slain by blind Hoder, (the winter months).

All things living and inanimate wept for the bright gods until death allowed them to return to the earth for part of the year.

Going still farther back in the early ages, before the birth of science, when the child-like mind of the race invested every phenomena of Nature with some richly picturesque old legend to explain its existence, we find the beautiful Grecian myth which refers to the winter season as Hermes having stolen Persephone, (summer) from her mother Dmetre (earth), and carried her to Hades.

In sorrow at her absence earth was clothed in mourning. No leaves grew upon the trees nor flowers in the gardens.

But after five or six months Persephone returned to her mother earth. The flowers bloomed, the trees bore fruit, and the harvest fields were filled with golden grain.

Thus from the earliest to the latest nations; in the snow-bound north around the blazing Yule log, in the balmy, vineclad south amid the blossoms and sunshine has been told the same old story.

We see that what appeared at first a mere idle tale invented for the amusement of the hour thousands of years ago had its origin in the phenomena attending the changes of the seasons.

Few of us are so learned that we can truly understand and appreciate Mother Goose and her classical associations.

Froebel noted that the underlying themes of nursery songs were indentical, despite the differences in the manner and the tongue in which they were expressed.

This led him to believe that there must be some reason why these subjects were especially adapted to infancy and childhood, because instinctive selections show universal needs and adaptations.

He made a careful study of this; the result of which is embodied in his "Mother Play and Nursery Songs."

In this book the universal nursery songs are carefully arranged to lead from the child's first perception of the activity of the life around him to the realization of his highest destiny.

The songs embrace the various occupations of simple life, the activities in plant and animal life which lead the child to observe natural phenomena, the endearing ties which closely bind together the family in its different relations. Woven through all these is the golden thread of spiritual truth, which serves as a clue by which to trace all life to its original source.

It teaches us that: "Nothing useless is, or low; each thing in its place is best."

The "Mother Play and Nursery Songs"

is full of plays for developing the limbs, and closely connected with these are songs and games for quickening the perception of the senses, as in the "Light Bird."

Keenly alive himself, the child rejoices. in seeing the life and movement around him. He takes great delight in watching a horse run, a fish dart through the shimmering water, a bird in its rapid flight, for in each he feels a kinship with their activity..

He can learn to run like the horse and to swim like the fish, but to fly he cannot learn.

There is a fascinating sense of mystery in the graceful flight of a bird, in its airy poises and sudden swoops, its nest life in the rustling, swaying branches, and above all its power to soar upward, upward to the clouds, where the child instinctively longs to follow. It is the inborn desire to attain higher realms, than those he has already reached.

What child has not watched with delight the dancing, quivering movements of reflected light?

When we pause to consider what the effects of light are we cannot wonder at its power of pleasing.

Think what would happen if light were removed from the face of the earth? Vegetable, animal and human life would perish without it.

It is because all life depends upon it that God is called the "Light of the World."

In the play of the "Light Bird" the sunlight is thrown upon the wall by means of a reflector.

The scintillating movements of the brilliant spot of color suggest the motions of a bird to the child and with his little hand outstretched he attempts to catch it, at the same time calling the pretty bird to come to him.

Ah! my little child, you cannot hold sunlight save in your heart where it may be made to brighten other lives as well as